Saturday, December 7, 2013

Zoë Turns Two

The Utes, specifically University of Utah Football: She'll pump a fist in the air meaning "go Utes" whenever she spots a logo.

Butterflies: She's two, and a girl...really no explanation needed.

Spider-Man: I think this is her brother's influence. But it's definitely one of her favorite superheroes (IronMan's pretty close though).

Yoga: she will carry my mats up and down the stairs for impromptu sessions.

Favorite Places: hands down The Little Gym (videos coming soon). I had no idea how much she would enjoy it... I may have a bit of Mommy guilt for not taking Holden there as a toddler (it's much better suited for my children than story time at the Library -- and yet, I tried so hard to make that one "work.") we had her party there and it was sooooo worth it!!! She loves singing the hello song with shakers, walking on the balance beam (with a 'spot' from mommy), hanging on the rings and the bars (on the latter she can pull her feet up to touch her hands while hanging upside down), doing forward rolls (aka somersaults), monkey climbs on the parallel bars, letting the bubbles touch her toes and playing drums with her hands for the goodbye song at the end of class.

Some of our favorite words of Z:

Milkkkkkkkkagh - said like she's German

Mam: How she says Mom.

Daaaaaad! Usually yelled down the staircase in the mornings for taking a shower.

Den (for Holden, though recently Ho!)

Welf - short for "I'll do it myself." Used for putting on pull-ups, pants, getting in the car, putting on shoes and pouring her own drinks.

Still nursing at 2, and not showing any real signs of slowing down. While there are plenty of moments when I wish she'd wean, there are far more that I'm thankful for that I can still use the mama's-milk-magic-trick: it has the ability to calm a upset toddler in 0-5 seconds. And I often joke my kids are walking Petri dishes so I'm thankful for the immunity it gives them too.

Z's not a big talker, there are 19 month olds with more words than she has, but if she's anything like her brother somewhere between 2-3 she'll start narrating the world in long-form-essay (seriously he can talk/tell stories for 90 minutes straight - easy).

But back to Z: she has a bit of 'stranger-danger.' Especially with males under the age of 12; but has an awesome relationship with her two grandpas. She loves to be held by them, sit on their laps, and loves to say their names.

She'll tell you her favorite restaurant is "The Dodo." And she's a great eater (yes, even with her nursing -- it's not so much for nutrition as it is for comfort and connection anyway). Some of her favorites: pico and pinto beans from Cafe Rio. Most fruit: grapes, strawberries, raspberries and bananas in particular. She's a huge fan a noodles - what 2yo is isn't? And she loves juicing with me in the mornings: beet juice where we include apples, carrots fresh ginger and like juice. She drinks it and looks like Batman's nemisis "the joker."

She's working her way towards being diaper-free: and it's been mostly her bidding (although I could do without her insisting on crawling on top of public toilets by her-welf. Eek!)

She's got amazing hair that's never been cut and requires beig wet AND my Aveda conditioner to get a comb through it. She doesn't love bows in her hair - try last 2-3 minutes althought she did keep a pony tail once for a few hours (she had not been in the shower and I needed to hide the evidence of four rats-nest that were her tresses.)

She has amazing blue eyes, loves to move her body and is now in the 82 percentile for weight at 29 pounds (she dropped almost a pound since her 18mo check up) and is still in the 90's for height.